117 
nature of man,-an. assurance, that his country 
will afford a refuge to science and knowledge 
when in the old age of Europe they shall have 
forsaken her shores. But all things of heavenly 
origin, like the glorious sun, move Westward; 
and Truth and Art have their periods of shining, 
and of night. Rejoice then, O venerable Rome, 
in thy divine destiny, for though darkness over-l 
shadow thy seats, and though thy mitred head 
must descend into the dust, as deep as theearth 
that now covers thy antient helmet and imperial 
diadem, thy spiri t, im mortal and undecayed, already, 
spreads towards a new world, where, like the 
soul of man in Paradise, it will be perfected in, 
virtue and beauty more and more." The highest 
efforts of the greatest actors, even of Garrick him- 
self deliveringithe poetry of Shakespeare, never 
produced a more immediate and inspiring effect 
than this rapid burst of genius. When the 
applause had abated, Mr. West being the stran- 
ger, and the party addressed, according to the_ 
common practice, made the bard a present. 
Mr. Hamilton explained the subject of the ode: 
though. with the weakness of a verbal trans-; 
lation, and the imperfection. of an indistint:t_